Fighting back against the Evil Empire.
Well, one of the Evil Empires, at any rate. Patricia Santangelo is fighting the RIAA assertion that she is a criminal for downloading music. Ray Beckerman, her lawyer, asserts that only a few people need to fight back against the RIAA to make their little crackdown a money loser. He says these cases have no basis and will easily be dismissed if brought to court.
The RIAA will give up long before we do, because sooner or later it will dawn upon them that their attorneys are taking them for a ride.... The plaintiff's 'opposition' papers were weak, digressive, and nonsensical. I believe they will be laughed out of court.The RIAA crackdown is yet another example of misplaced harrassment, treating regular citizens like criminals because they can't catch the guys doing the real damage.
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music
4 comments:
I remember when there was a big hub-bub over Napster and bands like Metallica. Being a big Metallica fan, my friends assumed I sided with them. I told them that I really didn't care all that much about music. I like that fact that consumers can get the music cheap.
My real concern was the movie industry. It wouldn't take much for the technology, nor consumer ambition, to go from music to movies (which was something I did care about). As consumers started downloading movies instead of watching them in theaters (or buy DVDs) movies would obviously become less profitable. Soon movie companies would have to start cutting back and producing lower quality films. In short, there's already enough bad films made every year, why would I want it to be harder for good movies to be made?
So while I don't care all that much about music downloads, I do want action to be taken now to prevent it from getting worse. (Next thing you know, there'll be a slump in the movie industry that will last week after week and we all don't want that!)
- Enrique
I'm pretty sure I agree with Enrique here. What is the counter arguement to that?
Why shouldn't the bands be able to get paid for their work, and determin the terms for that payment?
A lot of evidence shows that downloading helps sales of CDs. I know that I've sampled a lot of music online and it's prompted me to buy more CDs than I would have otherwise.
Frankly, anything that causes the movie industry to focus on good stories instead of spending money would be great, in my estimation. But then, I like high gas prices because they will mean the death of the SUV. So I have some unusual viewpoints.
Does anyone know the law on downloading TV shows? I heard they were a different case, since they're broadcast essentially for free and you're allowed to tape them and watch them later anyway.
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